calenberg



H. S. CALENBERG.

Piano Action.

A 4Patented Oct. 8, 1861.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ll. S. CALENBERG, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

PIANO-FORTE ACTION.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 33,427, dated October S, i861.

To (LZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, H. S. CALENBERG, of the cit-y, county, and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in PianoForte Actions; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a side view of an action with my improvement, showing it at rest. Fig. 2 is a similar view representing it in condition for repeating the blo'w on the string'. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the repeating-lever.

Similar' letters of reference indicate corre spending parts in all the figures.

This invention consists in a detached elastic lever applied substantially as hereinafter described, in combination with the hammershank and the jack, for the purpose of returning the jack into the notch ot the hammer, but in a manner to permit of a very rapid repetition of the blow of the hammer.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

A is the halnmer, B the playing-key, O the jack,D the rest,E the back-check, and F the regulating screw, all constructed and arranged substantially as in the so called French action.

Gis the repeating-lever, made in elbow form, with pads c b at its ends and with a spring at its elbow. This lever is represented as formed of a piece of steel wire, coiled at the elbow in such a manner (shown at c, Fig. 3) as to form both a spring and an eye for the reception of the fulcrum-pin d, on which it works. The ends of the wire are bentin a suitable manner (shown dotted in Fig. 3) to `rm frames for the pads c b, which are coinposed of leather, felt, or any other substance commonly used or suitable for the rubbingsurfaces of piano-forte actions. The fulcrumpin d is supported below the hammer-shank l and nea-r the butt 7L in a suitable fixed post c f, secured to a rail H, the said post being made of two separate pieces e and f, connected together by a screw g, and one of the said pieces being slotted to permit its adjustment to raise or lower the fulcrum-pin. The longer arm j of the lever G extends below the hammer-shank toward the head of the hammer,

and the shorter arm 7.1 thereof extends downward behind the hammer butt and jack. lYhile the action is at the rest the pad c ot' the arm j of the lever G is in contact with the hammer-shank and the pad 7e is in contact with the hammer-butt above the notch thereof, but does not quite touch, or at any rate does not press against, the jack. lVhen the front end of the key is depressed in playing, the jack comes into Contact with the pad a, and so presses forward the arm 7c and causes the arm j to follow up the hammershank as the hammer is thrown up to the string. After the escape of the jack from the notch of the hammer-butt, the hammer, it' the blow has not been very heavy, is ar rested in its fall at a very short distance below the string, as shown in Fig. 2, and a veryslight rise of the front end of the playing-key allows the jack to be returned to the notch of the hammer-butt to repeat the blow by the subsequent depression of that end of the key; or, if the blow has been heavy enough to cause the hammer to return to the backcheck, a sufficient rise of the playing end of the key to `free the hammer of the back-check will permit the repeating-lever to raise the hammer to the position shown in Fig. by its own elasticity, for by the fall of the hammer the army' of the lever is always more or less depressed relatively to the arm 7tand the spring c more or less compressed.

The lever G, applied as described, provides for a very free and rapid repetition of the blow of the hammer, and it possesses the advantage of being applicable to actions which have been already finished and in use without the alteration or cutting of any ot its parts.

I do not claim the employmentot an elastic lever to arrest and support the hammer near the string when such lever is attached to the jack; but

That I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The detached elastic repeating-lever G, arranged relatively to the hammer and jack upon a lixed fulcrum d and operating substantially as herein described.

ll. S. OALENBERG.

Witnesses:

JAMES LAIRD, G. W. REED. 

